


Winner

by Anonymous



Category: Survivor (US TV) RPF
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Ponderosa - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 11:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17661701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Brendan just wants to take care of him.





	Winner

JT was shaking out of his skin.  He’d been going full out for the past thirty-nine days, and now that it was over, he was crashing hard.  Brendan could feel him trembling as he rubbed circles against the younger man’s back, and he was grateful no one else had followed them down the hallway.  There was no way JT would have let himself go to pieces like this if there were more people around.

The final tribal council had been hard to watch.  Brendan had tried to start them off with a question skewed in JT’s favor, but it didn’t last.  While he had, in Brendan’s opinion, come out on top, JT’s anxiety had been transparent.  He picked at his fingers and chewed his nails, and the little nervous tics looked out of place on such a large man.  By the end of it, JT had been bent double, glossy-eyed.

“Sorry,” JT mumbled.

“Nothing to be sorry for, Jet,” Brendan said.  “I’ve got you.  You’d feel a hell of a lot better after a bath though.”

“A bath?” JT repeated dubiously.  “I haven’t sat in a tub since I was seven year old.”

“Do you really think you can stay on your feet long enough for the kind of shower you need?” Brendan said, and JT looked down at himself.  He was still in the same clothes he’d been wearing for the past month.  He’d barely made it past the door before he ended up here, trembling in the floor.  Their flight back to the US wasn’t for two more days, and JT and Stephen were staying at Ponderosa with everyone else.  “I’m not going to tell anybody, baby.”

That was another thing about the game—the nicknames.  Everybody was always calling JT baby or buddy or Jet.  Brendan liked being able to say it without anyone batting an eye, but there was a possessive part of him deep down that wanted JT to just be _his_ baby, his buddy, his Jet.

It took JT a minute to get out of the floor and he leaned on Brendan a little more than he would have liked, but they made it to bathroom.  JT sat on the toilet seat while Brendan ran water in the tub.  After 39 days in the game, he wasn’t shy about stripping down and getting in with someone still in the room.

“God, you’re beat up,” Brendan said.  The last immunity challenge had been mental, but JT was still covered in scrapes and bruises from the ones before it.  Dominating the physical aspects of the game had taken its toll.  “You probably-”

“Stephen wasn’t going to take me,” JT interrupted.  He didn’t look at Brendan as he spoke.  “I thought we were really friends.”

“He knew you’d beat him,” Brendan said after a pause.  “He is your friend, but Survivor isn’t the type of game where a new friendship is going to thrive.  He knew you’d beat him because you’re the type of guy who would take him.  That’s why he couldn’t beat you.”

“I ain’t won yet,” JT mumbled. 

“I voted for you,” Brendan said.  JT finally looked at him, and Brendan took a seat in the floor beside the tub.  “Come on, Jet, you don’t think Stephen could actually win.  He looked like such an asshole up there.  I’d be surprised if he got a single vote.”

“I wished you’d been in longer,” JT said.  Brendan did too.  He would have liked to be in the finals with JT.  He would have liked to be the one to take him there, even though he knew he couldn’t beat him.  He wouldn’t have left JT wet-eyed and insecure.  But Brendan had made it to the jury, and JT had gone to the final.  That was all that really mattered.  He was able to give JT one more vote and be there for the aftermath.

“I just wanted you to win,” Brendan said truthfully.  “Honest to God, I’m happy with how things turned out.”

JT wiped his face with the wash cloth and held it there for a moment.

“You’re a good guy, Brendan.”

“Thanks,” he said.  “Now let me wash your hair, Jet.  It’s nasty, and you don’t look like you could raise your arms above your head.”

JT laughed, but he tilted his head back and closed his eyes without protest.  The look on his face reminded Brendan of the rafting trip.  His expression was peaceful, sincere, and trusting.  It was amazing a guy like JT had made it on Survivor, but nobody could stand to hurt him.  He honestly deserved the money, and they all knew it.

“Everybody loves you,” Brendan promised.  “You’ll see.”


End file.
